'You Belong': Man Offers Message of Support to Muslim Community

"This was about binding up the wounded," the man wrote on Facebook.

December 1, 2016, 5:03 PM

— -- "You belong. Stay strong. Be blessed. We are one America."

That's the message on a sign that a man named Justin Normand recently held outside of the Islamic Center of Irving in Texas.

The gesture has warmed the hearts of many members of the center's mosque and thousands more across the country, according to ABC station WFAA in Dallas.

A photo of Normand and the sign posted to Imgur this past Friday, Nov. 25, has been viewed more than 450,000 times as of this afternoon.

Normand, a Presbyterian Christian, wrote in a Facebook post this week that his sign was about showing solidarity with the Muslim community -- which has been experiencing a "tremendous level of fear" after Donald Trump's surprise victory in the election, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

"This was about binding up the wounded," Normand wrote in the Facebook post. "About showing compassion and empathy for the hurting and fearful among us. Or, in some Christian traditions, this was about washing my brother’s feet."

WFAA captured video of several members of the mosque sharing kind words and smiles with Normand.

"I think someone like him will ... inspire someone else to be more supportive and to share that happiness with everyone else," one woman at the mosque told WFAA. "That’s what we need more of in this community."

One man at the mosque added, "We probably needed this, but my kids needed this a lot more."

Normand wrote in his Facebook post that seeing his gesture go viral was "extraordinary and humbling" but "mainly because what I did isn’t (or shouldn’t be) all that extraordinary."